Late Tang

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The fifteenth day of the eighth month of the fifth year of Qianfu.

August [-]th, the day of Mid-Autumn Festival reunion, a grand festival of the Tang Dynasty.

Under the city of Liaodong, even though it was wartime, the king of Andong County still ordered the entire army to suspend military operations on such a festival, and each army took a three-day vacation.The logistics department of the battalion will also distribute all kinds of wine and meat rewards prepared early to each army and each battalion.In addition to receiving wine and meat, all the soldiers were also given a set of military uniforms, plus five thousand yuan banknotes per person.In addition, there are tea, fruit, canned food, mouth fat, facial fat, etc.

At the same time, the camp also ordered that a military parade review ceremony will be held during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and a series of ceremonies such as flag presentation, honors, promotion, and awards will be held.

These grand ceremonies were originally planned to be held in front of millions of people at the Victory Square in Xindengzhou after the defeat of Goguryeo.But now, Xingying suddenly ordered that it will be held under Liaodong City, and Xingying has sent dozens of teams of cavalry to go to various places in the sixteen prefectures, ordering all the county magistrates, prefects of the sixteen prefectures, and civil officials of the Six Caos to come, and to send a message to all the prefectures. Commanding officers above the battalion level of the county soldiers, and officers above the Xiang level of the United Army and the Township Army rushed to participate in the military parade and award ceremony as quickly as possible.

Since the early morning, in addition to a small number of troops in charge of security, 20 auxiliary soldiers near Liaodong City, plus more than [-] conscripted civilian husbands, began to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in the camp stretching fifty miles along the banks of the Liao River.

The soldiers and civilians in the camp celebrated the festival, but in the camp of the Chinese army, the atmosphere was a little tense.

After Zhang Tai proclaimed the decree to Li Jing, and announced their new promotions and appointments to other civil and military generals in the town [***], the atmosphere in the entire Chinese army camp began to be a little tense, loose on the outside but tight on the inside.

Now Zhang Tai and his imperial envoys are all arranged in the tent on the side of the camp, although Li Jing accepted the order calmly.But the movements of Zhang Tai and others were restricted, except that Li Jing sent someone to invite them to have a meal with him every day, he could only stay in the tent during the rest of the time, he couldn't go anywhere, and he couldn't see anyone.

According to Zhou Dewei, the leader of the Jinjia Shengjie Army, this place is in a state of war, and it is just under Liaodong City. Therefore, they must protect the safety of the envoy.

Zhang Tai knew well that Li Jing didn't kill him on the spot when he heard the edict, it was already a benefit of the cooperative relationship between him and Li Jing over the past few years.If Tian Lingzi hadn't insisted in front of the emperor that he and Li Jing were the best for rebellion and the most suitable to be the edict official, he would not have come anyway.

After cutting down the feudal clan, Zhang Tai sat in the tent a little leisurely, drinking tea and reading at the same time.But even though he was holding the book, he didn't flip the pages all morning. In fact, he didn't read the contents of the book at all. He was calm on the surface, but his heart was full of turmoil.

He was guessing Li Jing's next reaction!

He never thought that Li Jing was a truly loyal and patriotic courtier. In fact, he believed that anyone with Li Jing's current power would not be able to easily give up his power.

Regardless of whether Li Jing is willing or not, he has reached such a delicate position anyway.

With such credit and power, Li Jing is now the real master of meritorious service.

Less than 30 years old, he is already an extremely human minister, named king with a different surname, is also a commander of several towns, and holds 20 soldiers.Seeing that Goguryeo was about to be destroyed by Li Jing, and then made such a great contribution, what would the court want to reward? Could it be that Li Jing was named king?But right now Li Jing is only under 30 years old, if he is crowned king, then what will he reward next?

Regardless of Tian Lingzi's advice or not, the court will inevitably cut Li Jing's vassal, which is an inevitable result.

But at this point, he didn't think Li Jing had any other choice.

If Li Jing agrees to cut down the feudal clan and hand over the military rights in his hands, it will be difficult for Li Jing to have a good end.

No matter how you look at it, Li Jing has only one way to go, and that is to rebel.

Maybe the emperor thought that Li Jing was loyal, and would hand over the army in his hand and let the court transfer it.

But when Tian Lingzi and Lu Xie proposed this plan, they must have known the next development in their hearts.They knew that Li Jing could make a choice, and if they wanted to do this, then they had already made up their minds to force Li Jing back.

Maybe Li Jing was very powerful, but they definitely expected that the court would eventually destroy Li Jing.

The Shatuo people were also very powerful back then, but they were also wiped out by the court.There are also the former three towns in Hebei, Huaixi Town, Shannan Dongdao, and Ziqing Pinglu, which were all separatist towns, and they were all conquered by the imperial court in the end.

Tian Lingzi asked him to come to Liaodong to pass the decree, obviously to kill people with a knife.

Although Li Jing accepted the order, it is impossible to leave immediately according to the current situation.

The imperial court transferred Zheng Congxuan, Cui Anqian, and Zhang Zimian to replace Li Jing, but they had to mobilize troops and horses, and then prepare food and grass, etc. Calculated, the fastest time was one month, and the slowest was two months to arrive.

During these two months, Li Jing was still the commander-in-chief of the entire town [***], still commanding 20 soldiers and horses.

There are too many things Li Jing can do. He has already heard that Li Jing is going to parade and award honors under Liaodong City, and even heard that various cavalry are sent out.

What worries Zhang Tai even more is that up to now, only Li Jing and other generals know about the emperor's decree.The other soldiers and civilians in the camp were completely unaware of Li Jing's reassignment and the news that the town [***] was dismantled.

From Zhang Tai's point of view, just looking at this point alone, it can be seen that Li Jing has no intention of accepting the imperial court's will.Otherwise, if Li Jing listened to the edict, then he should read the edict to the whole army at this time, and announce it to the officials of the seventeen prefectures.

Li Jing really wants to rebel, but Zhang Tai doesn't care.

He ridiculed Tian Lingzi and Lu Xie in his heart, thinking that Li Jing was a nouveau riche, and it took only four or five years to build such a territory and army, did he think that Li Jing's foundation was insufficient?

In his opinion, if the imperial court wanted to deal with Li Jing, it should not have been dealt with like this at all.The best way is for the emperor to move to Luoyang first, and then let Li Jing go to Luoyang to meet him, and then directly detain Li Jing when Li Jing arrives in Luoyang, or simply kill Li Jing, and then find an excuse to say Li Jing died of a sudden illness and so on.At the same time, the imperial court sent elite soldiers and horses into Li Jing's territory, and then publicly read the emperor's edict to split the town [***], and then appointed Li Jing's generals as five town commanders, governors and other officials.

At the same time, directly transfer Li Jing's sworn brothers such as Lin Wei, Wang Zhong and his disciples to other places.

Only with such a multi-pronged approach can it be possible to uproot Li Jing's power.

But as it is now, they simply want to provoke Li Jing to rebel, but they have no precautions at all. Tian Lingzi and others are playing with fire.

They starved a tiger for a long time, but then opened the cage, it was really stupid.

Should it be said that they underestimated Li Jing, or that they underestimated themselves?

"General, Supervisor Zhang is asking to see you." The guard reported from outside the account.

Hearing that the adopted son was coming to see him, Zhang Tai quickly dropped the scroll in his hand and got up to greet him.

The Golden Armored Army outside the tent did not stop Zhang Chengye, and let him in directly.

Zhang Chengye walked in with two food boxes, looking haggard.Obviously, he also understood the meaning behind the sudden decree issued by the imperial court.The court began to be suspicious of the county king.

All along, Zhang Chengye has been loyal to Li Tang, and since he became Li Jing's army supervisor, he has devoted himself to Datang.But after following Li Jing for several years, he actually believed in Li Jing very much.Although Li Jing has been on the rise all the way, not to mention the money that Li Jing paid to the emperor every year, but the fact that the imperial court dispatched Li Jing to send troops every time.How could Li Jing not accept it, and how could he not be careful?

On behalf of Beiping Shatuo, the Central Plains weed killer.

In the past few years, relying on Zhen [***]'s own strength, he has opened up the territory and recovered Anton.

So loyal to the king's affairs, but now at the critical moment of the destruction of Goguryeo, the emperor issued such a decree, which really chilled the hearts of the soldiers.

He was very worried that Li Jing would make some drastic actions because of this. For this reason, he asked Li Jing to see him several times and had sincere talks with Li Jing.He also did not persuade Li Jing to accept the court's will, but he also hoped that Li Jing could make a statement to the court to explain the current situation.

"The king of the county has ordered [***] civilian officials above the county magistrate and military officers above the battalion commander to come to discuss matters before the military parade and award ceremony." Zhang Chengye said with some seriousness.

Li Jing asked these officials to come here at this time, there are two possibilities, one is to declare the emperor's will.But if this is the case, a direct document is enough.If this is not the case, then another possibility is worrying.It is a very bad omen to summon these officials at this time.

Zhang Tai pondered for a moment.

Question: "How are Cui Yunqing, Li Zhen and others doing?"

Zhang Chengye looked up at his adoptive father, of course he knew the meaning of this sentence.

The imperial court dismissed Li Jing's post, but appointed Li Jing's important advisers such as Cui Yunqing and Li Zhen to be the commanders-in-chief of the five towns. This is a tactic to alienate and divide Li Jing.If the five of them had selfish intentions, they might betray Li Jing and stand against Li Jing.

Zhang Chengye shook his head, and said with a wry smile: "I don't know what Cui Yunqing knows, but I know Li Zhen, Gai Yu, Jing Xiang, and Guo Chengan very well. It runs counter to Li Jing."

"Are you sure?" Zhang Tai asked in surprise.The position of the Jiedushi of a town, the official position and power are not small.

"After getting along with them for several years, I think I know them very well." Zhang Chengye is very sure of this, not to mention Li Zhen, Gai Yu and others who Li Jing is kind to them, but he is Zhang Chengye, although I have always firmly believed that I am loyal to Li Tang, but at this moment, I still lean towards Li Jing in my heart.

What's more, Li Zhen, Gai Yu, Jing Xiang, Guo Cheng'an, who didn't receive Li Jing's kindness?

No one knows better than Zhang Chengye that in fact, Li Jing has multiple levels of military and popular support for Zhen [***].

Hearing this, Zhang Tai sighed lightly, shook his head, but said nothing. (To be continued.)